"Christmas stories" by Charles Dickens
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epriving him from any opportunity to counteract against good even if he has not repented, or has not repented definitely.
Such satisfactory plot reflects deep belief of the writer to the positive, vital opportunity of bourgeois society, where despite of the existence of defects and injustice, he tries to find the power and humans, who would be able to take the depressed virtue under his protection.
The novel of Goldsmith “Wakefield priest” has words theme. Even if the priests family is poor, beginning from the prison and finishing by imaginary death of priests lovely daughter Olivia, “revived” at the end of the novel, nevertheless, the happy-ending organically follows from the here expressed philosophy of life. Thus, author does not express his villain Tornguil as the originator of all misfortune of the family, quite repented. And, nevertheless, this goes right due to that among the oppressed people but also among the strong people, there are men who care for the “law and justice”. Uncle of villain, Sir William Tornquil, appears to be a kind personality, whose purpose is to make happy suffered man and to punish the criminal.
words cases are less and less in the novels of Charles Dickens. Villains as Kvilp, Riderhood, Rigo-Blandoir, Uri Gip or Ralph Nickleby need to be punished cruelly, relentlessly. They perish not being forgiven by the author, who does not believe that they can radically change to the better in the frame of reality. Only Scrooge can change because it happens to him in the Christmas night. Christmas stories of Charles Dickens about good villains are the most fantastic fantasies about the impossibility, realized exactly as impossibility. These sensibleness inventions, impossible in reality, are rather significant. And not without reason, common joy and vitality of their color constantly are accompanied by the shade of sentimental sadness, concerning to that this is only a tale. To the order with the funny inventions, author constantly shows also unfunny inventions, which always exist in the world, contrary to one fantastic night composed by the writer himself, which he himself half believe.
And as the joyful flames of the fireplace seems to be brighter because of the darkness in the rooms, darkness in the streets, words in the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens holiday night is fantastic and full of kindness, because only this night of the year is able to bring changes to better. And if the poor man celebrates a joyful holiday in this evening and if the rich men join to them, then in the future there will be many gloomy everyday life and severe tests, where this magic clocks of the human unification will disappear. This hopelessness of “merry Christmas”, its fictitiousness constantly felt in Charles Dickens Christmas stories and add to them original melancholic color.
Charles Dickens trying to save the idyll should limit its scale; leave the great social-philosophical questions, so idyll is powerless contrast to the bourgeois society. Dickens finds idyllic symbiosis of poor with the rich, about what he dreams in his sentimental stories, not in the world where openly happens class struggle, but in the “small world” of intimate family life. Idyll of Dickens, expelled from the sphere of big social laws, appears too correlated with the insignificant events of family life, getting meaning and sense by the subjective perception of the participants of this event. Miracles of this idyll is the miracles of the “small world” with its dissolution about daily life cares and psychological microscopis Dickens such a realist that he describes that the manufacturer is not able to feel sorry for the working mans misfortune, when he acts as the businessman on official reason. And some operator, coming to the poor mans home for “personal reason”, and feeling atmosphere of love, mutual understanding and support dominating there, can suddenly be moved, and change even for a time, even for a night refuse his operational essence.
The author attributes to this “domestic” ideology special, all-conquering authority. He searches for the means among the oppressors of the modern capitalism, which could unite poor men with the rich man, serving as the bridge to them from the other, gloomy world.
Some characters of the human Dickens wanted to announce as common for all people, as the humanist of the last century. Dickens can not do this in the field of the wide social question, because in the XIX century it was already appeared and formed as class ideology. The questions of common outlook, life philosophy, conscience or honour of bourgeois or poor man will be defined completely differently in Dickens, and author will emphasize that differentiation. But some nuances of wordsity, some of the opportunity of rapprochement he will try to find in all people. This is secondary for society, but nevertheless, Dickens uses it as the basis of his utopia of the human unification. This basis is sentimental ideology of the family. Abstracted “family” feelings can be unifying power for all the people. Rich father can understand his poor father, because they both are fathers. The rich person in due time, probably was little badgered boy, and that is why he is able suddenly to be touched, when he meets as little badgered boy as he himself.
Characterizing avidity and callousness of English bourgeois, Engels wrote:
“Of course, these English bourgeois are good husbands and fathers…”
In the ideology of Dickens and Haskell, “domesticity” (because it is understood as the abstract category, as the nobility of any “human generally”) is equivalent to the ability of exploitator to leave his class limits to the wide sphere human commonwealth. In the limited form XVIII centurys ideology had great ideological influence.
In his three main Christmas stories Dickens produced not only the principles of “domestic”, “Christmas world outlook”, but also he set steady form to express it.
Christmas Carol in prose, The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth are unified by their mood and wordsity of the compositions.
They are related also by the unity of the narrative intonation. In all three stories, more and less, appear the figure of the story-teller sitting by the fireplace and addressing to his listeners also sitting there, too. He as if continues conversation, which then gradually develop to the related narration, and thus, by its presence emphasizes Christmas spirit.
“The cattle started the first. Do not object that Mrs. Pirinbingle thinks differently. I know better. Let her repeat endlessly that she can not tell who began the first; but I say the cattle. I guess I should know? For the Holland clocks standing at the corner, the cattle began five minutes earlier than the cricket started its song”.
The Cricket on the Hearth begins as this.
The Christmas Carol in prose begins with the establishment of the fact, that Marley was as dead as the door nail.
“Let me, - go on. it does not mean that I certainly know that there is nothing more dead than the door nail” etc., with the sound of the friendly conversation with the listeners.
The Chimes begins with description of the night wind, howling on the walls of an old empty church:
“Oh, Lord! Save us from it, - us, sitting around the fire. It has horrible sound, - of the midnight wind, howling in the church.
Oh! On the campanile! That is where he whistles and growls with the anger! etc. “And so I am going to tell the story about such bells in such an old church”.
Gradually, the voice of the story-teller weakens and disappears, conceding its place to the narration, and, however, in order to appear in the end of the story. Thus, the impression of the story by the fire keep presenting till the end of the narration.
In many stories story teller reminds us about his presence, interfering into the story:
“As to my mind, I do not agree with Tobys opinion about the bells, so I do not doubt that he had much time to think deeply about it and also develop it. I will stand for Toby, but I doubt that he stood at the doors of the church any day or any week. The matter is that Toby was messenger, and he was waiting for the order.”
In The Cricket on the Hearth, when the talk begins about Tekleton, the story-teller appears again:
“Did I tell you that one eye of him is always widely opened and another almost closed; and the almost closed one was just more expressive? I suppose I did not”.
And not only story-tellers personality, but also fiction of the listener, whom he addresses, appears in the narration from time to time:
“But as to the stuffing tobacco, Dot was the master of it; how dexterously she fired the rolled scrap of the paper when he needed to light the grape stalk, - that was an art, sir, real art”.
However, the appearance of the fiction “story-teller on the fire” sometimes interrupted by the real story-teller, an author, Charles Dickens.
This is one of the not numerous examples:
“Bright light spread all over the room, and curtains in the Scrooges room moved.
Curtains of his room, I say, were moved by the invisible hand. Not those curtains what was hung near his legs, and nor at his head, but the curtains before his face. The curtains of his bed were moved, and waking up Scrooge came to be face to face with the supernatural visitor, who moved the curtains: as close to him as I am close to you now, and me, near your elbow as the ghost!”
That person who told that the curtains were moved is fiction author of the story, “story-teller by the fire”. The man who appears near the readers elbow as the